First Day of Middle School for Zoe!

In East Wenatchee Washington there a few things that are different.

Lots of sunshine and apples and...

5th grade is Middle School

My Zoe is now in the 5th grade so we had to make the emotionally trying transition into Middle School.

Ever the fashionista she put together this "fun, funky, fashionable" (her words)

 outfit from her school clothes.

We also did our hair the same so we could think about eachother throughout the day.

Here she is with her school in the background.

Her first locker.

This was a huge source of anxiety for her and for me.

The first time she tried it she could get the combination without a problem but she wasn't physically strong enough to life the latch.  What can you do about that?  Have her lift weights?  We were all very concerned.  Thankfully her locker partner is buff.

1st period.

Zoe and Fatima.

Zoe is growing up so fast.  She is becoming so responsible and she has handled this new scary adventure called Middle School with so much grace and maturity.  I am so proud of her and so thankful to have her in my life.

Lake Chelan again...

We got to spend a day of Greysen's birthday week at Lake Chelan.

This was the first time that we had gone to the lake for the purpose of swimming since we moved here.

We are still learning the best places to go so we went to this park that we had gone to with the Dame's for thier daughters birthday.

What we didn't know was that there was no beach at this park, just a 10 foot retaining wall that you have to jump off of directly into the icy cold waters!

Crazy eh?!

We had fun though once we all got over the freezing adjustment.

Here Grey and I are after we took our swim and were soaking up the sun.

 (Through SPF 50 of course!)

Zoe swam all over the place.

Tate found a big stick shaped like a gun.

Here Grey and I are on our swim.  He really did have fun despite his expression.

The kids got to feed a duck.

And Ben got to snorkel.

Later that night the kids hung out with the Dames kids and had a sitter while Ben and I played with Haley and Jon.

We rented paddle board which neither of us had done before but was so much fun.

Ben and I shared one.  First he stood and paddled while I rode on the front.  Ben doesn't have great balance so the board was shaking.  I kept reminding him to have "grounded feet"  which was something we used to say in dance to help us balance.  This reminded him of the Friends episode where Ross kept saying "Pivot! Pivot!"  Which made him laugh so he shook even more and then he tipped us.  Then I took over paddling and we got the hang of it.  Later he had another turn and did a great job.  It was so much fun.

Our First Garden

We planted our first garden this year.

This is our first full year where we have had a yard to plant a garden in.

We went from having no garden to having 300 square feet to work with.  We had no idea what we where doing so we just planted a bunch of stuff that sounded good.

Peas, potatos, carrots, chives, bak choy, radishes, pumpkins, corn, oregano, thyme, articholkes, raspberries, basil, cilantro, kale, greenbeans, tomatos, egg plant, green peppers, jalipenos, zuccini, yellow squash, spagetti squash, butternut squash, strawberries, blueberries and cucumber.  

Here are some things we learned:

1.  Some things need to be planted before they go outside.  For example tomatos, green peppers, jalipenos, and egg plants all need to be "started".

2.  Birds love peas, strawberries and blueberries so you have to protect them somehow.

3.  Slugs love beer

4.  Marigolds are awesome to keep away tomato bugs.

5.  If we don't label our plants sometimes we forget what they are.

6.  Zuccini takes up a lot of space.

7.  We don't like spagetti squash.

8.  Pickles and marinara from the garden rock!

Pretty Eggplant

Cute Pumpkin

Our corn row path

Here's Zoe's reaction to some unexpectedly large produce.

Zuccini mustache!

Unicorn squash!

This is one days worth of produce.

Pickles and Pickled Green Beans.

Yummy!

Happy Birthday Greysen!

Our little man has turned 2!

Look at that sweet face! Don't you just want to smush those cheeks?

Our little man is so funny and smart.

Here are some of my favorite things about Grey:

1. He says "I puds" When he needs a diaper change and points to his bottom.

2. He hums the Star Wars Theme and the Darth Vader Theme

3. He loves to pretend to be a monster

4. When you ask him for something he says "Sure!" In his sweet voice.

5. He loves cars, trains, trucks and anything with a motor. On the way from the car into the church every sunday he names every vehicle he can see ie: car, truck, truck car.

6. He has squishy kissable cheeks.

7. He does very dramatic fake deaths when playing Star Wars.

8. He pats your back when he is trying to comfort you.

9. His little voice is so sweet.

10. He still thinks that my kiss heals his ouwies.

Greysen decided to wear Ben's shorts.


The infamous blanket, only he doesn't cover his body with it he wrapps it around his head while he sleeps.

Greysen does not like cake so for his birthday this year we had fruit and whipped cream.

This was Greysen's personal birthday cake made specially by Ben.

Happy Birthday to Greysen!

Yummy Birthday Cake (minus the cake!)

Birthday Presents!

Whenever we ask Greysen how old he is he says "I dknow"

Love the monster!

He loves dogs!

Epic Star Wars Battle

Leavenworth pond

There is a pond in leavenworth that is stocked every year with trout in the summer. Kinds under 15 are allowed to catch 5 fish a day there.

We thought that would be a great place to spark the kids interest in fishing by actually catching a fish.

Zoe casted out one time and immediatly caught her first fish. She was so excited and scared and kind of grossed out.

Grey isn't fishing yet so instead he filled his pockets with rocks.

I taught Tate how to cast so that he could fish on his own. I am very proud of the fact that I taught both Zoe and Tate to cast. Tate had so much fun that he told me he wanted to be a professional fisherman when he grows up. Or a scientist that studies dinosaurs.

There is that gorgeous girl of mine catching fish like crazy.

There were 6 fish caught in total. Tate caught one and Zoe caught 5.

Greysen fell in the pond and pushed Tate in also.

It was a great day.